Mulcaire has made new statements about Edmondson in response to questions raised as part of a High Court privacy action brought by football agent Sky Andrew, the Guardian reports. This is one of a series of fresh privacy actions stemming from allegations of phone hacking from the Goodman/Mulcaire pre-2007 era.

A spokesman for the News of the World said: “This is a serious allegation that will form part of our internal investigation.”